There may be other, more recent contenders for the title ‘Most Divisive Irish Politician’ but for many years the man in undisputed possession of the accolade was former Taoiseach and President Eamon de Valera, survivor of the Easter Rising, leading opponent of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, creator of the 1937 Constitution and founder of Fianna Fail. Professor Ronan Fanning will discuss his new account of the life of ‘The Long Fellow’, Eamon de Valera: A Will to Power, described by the Irish Times as ‘a lucid biography of the ultimate conviction politician’.
